In the frame
The glamorous world of film has been hijacked by directors and charities with gritty stories to share. Alice Onwordi reports.
Mark Ross, an adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (JRRT) is very clear about why his charity helped to finance a documentary: ‘A documentary reaches a far wider audience than a lot of charity campaigns normally can.’
The JRRT is one of many charities working with the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, known as BRITDOC, an organisation committed to social-action filmmaking. As well as providing grants to documentary filmmakers themselves, it encourages NGOs and funding bodies to support filmmakers, either by helping with funding or with advice and support.
BRITDOC was set up in 2005 with a £2.8 million grant from Channel 4.
It has worked with a number of partners each year, including Christian Aid and Amnesty International. To date, it has produced around 30 documentaries and films, with credits including Afghan Star, the winner of Best World Cinema Documentary Director and World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Reaching a new audience
The JRRT and BRITDOC each gave a £35,000 grant towards Erasing David, a film that looks at how far civil liberties have been eroded in the UK. The subject of the film, David, tries to discover if he can ‘disappear’ for a month, avoiding any surveillance mechanisms. The JRRT itself has written a number of reports on Britain’s increased observation of people and is keen to ensure that its messages get out to the largest possible audience.
As Ross explains: ‘We produced a report called Database State that will probably only be read by policymakers and people who already have a particular interest. An engaging documentary is a far more effective way to get complicated issues through to the wider public.’
The film may be appearing on More4, as the channel has first refusal on each of the 20 documentaries BRITDOC funds each year. Some BRITDOC productions, such as Black Gold, which looked at the inequities for coffee growers in Ethiopia, have become feature films. Black Gold was partsponsored by Christian Aid and went on to have a worldwide cinema release and screenings at 13 film festivals, including Sundance.
It’s a terrific platform for getting issues noticed, as Deborah Burton, Christian Aid’s global campaigner, explained: ‘When the directors, Marc and Nick Francis, walked in the door and showed us a rough cut, we looked at it and thought “this is a gift, a campaigning tool.”’
The future for issue-led factual programming may involve partnerships with many more charitable foundations as investment becomes harder to find elsewhere. According to Katie Bradford, the editorial director of BRITDOC: ‘Television in Britain has become more risk averse and the preference is for popular ratings pullers. The larger television companies are cutting back on funding documentaries.’
In an effort to bring some of the best filmmaking ideas to an audience of potential sponsors, BRITDOC pioneered a Good Pitch session at its film festival in Oxford last year. It gave eight filmmakers 20 minutes each to pitch their ideas to an audience of 50 organisations, including Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace, The Times and YouTube.
BRITDOC will be running four Good Pitch events this year, and charities and not-for-profit organisations can keep informed about these by signing up for email updates on the BRITDOC website. Explains Bradford: ‘Charities often have difficult experiences with television production teams. Our mission is to broker mutually beneficial relationships between charities, foundations and filmmakers to produce groundbreaking films and effective campaigns.’
Not all of the charities involved in the partnerships are large. One such charity is the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which works with people affected by child abuse. The charity supported the campaigning mission of a documentary called Chosen, without providing any funding.
Chosen is the story of three men who speak candidly about the abuse they suffered at a private boarding school more than 30 years ago. The director, Brian Woods, has won many awards for his work, including an Emmy, and recently garnered a BAFTA for best documentary.
His production company, True Vision Productions, has made factual programmes in the past for both the BBC and Channel 4. He first had the idea to make a documentary about the three men featured in Chosen some years ago, after they approached him with their stories. As Katie Bradford explains: ‘Brian usually gets full funding from the larger production companies. But this idea of just three men talking to camera with no reconstruction, was difficult to get funding for.’
Woods approached BRITDOC with a taster tape, featuring each of the men talking briefly, to show how compelling they were on film. ‘About 10 minutes after the viewing,’ Woods says, ‘[BRITDOC CEO] Jess Search, said “I think we should do this; we can’t give you much, but we’ll give you as much as we can.”’ Chosen was first aired on More4 in September 2008 and was then later shown on Channel 4.
Powerful messages
Woods was keen to ensure that the issues raised in the film produced a legacy, and partnered with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to produce a training DVD using clips from Chosen. The DVD is aimed at professionals who may come into contact with abused children; everyone from the police to social workers. Said Woods: ‘We needed the expertise of the Lucy Faithfull charity to ensure a lasting impact from the film. Because it talks to childcare professionals, the charity helped us reach these key audiences.’
Donald Findlater, a director of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, also saw the value of the partnership: ‘We saw it as a campaigning tool – a documentary that says how sexual abuse works. We felt it was particularly helpful to people who are new to the job of social work or who have just become police officers.’
Findlater visits many institutions and individuals that have contact with children, including the Catholic Church, and uses the DVD as a visual aid. The charity also advised BRITDOC on a postcard for parents, SuCCeSS StorY BlACK GOlD which offers four questions they should ask of their children’s schools. BRITDOC distributed the cards to schools in London. In addition, viewers who watch Chosen can phone the charity’s helpline number, which is provided on the Chosen website.
As Findlater explains: ‘Some parents think that because their child is at an independent school, abuse won’t happen, and that’s the myth Chosen breaks. It’s helped us reach parents far more effectively than if we were launching a campaign on our own.’ Findlater feels that were it not for BRITDOC, neither the Foundation or Woods would have achieved their objectives. ‘The opportunity BRITDOC allowed us was invaluable and society can only benefit.’
There are other organisations concerned with forging links between broadcasters and NGOs, such as One World Broadcasting Trust, which concentrates on human rights, social and development issues. Smaller broadcasters include the Media Trust’s Community Channel, which makes low-cost programmes for charities. These programmes can be broadcast, used on a charity website or as a presentation aid.
Find out more
• BRITDOC http://britdoc.org
• The Media Trust www.mediatrust.org
• One World Broadcasting Trust www.owbt.org
• Community Channel www.communitychannel.org
Success story: black gold
Black Gold was one of the first films to receive a grant from BRITDOC, with Christian Aid also providing some funding. The film features Ethiopian farmers, who earn just a few pounds a week in the multi-billionpound coffee industry.
The film had a big impact after its US/UK cinema release, and some coffee brands such as Cafédirect and ATM Coffee helped to publicise the movie. A public blogging campaign followed.
The directors, Nick and Marc Francis, have said they hoped to use the subject of coffee production to motivate Western consumers to question their basic assumptions about their consumer lifestyles and how they interact with the rest of the world.
The stories, they say, create a personal connection. Say the directors: ‘We wanted to go beyond the simplistic messaging of bad weather + starving people + money = problem solved, and highlight the more positive stories instead. That’s why the film was centered around Tadesse Meskela, an example of someone who isn’t waiting for any outside support – he’s actually doing something to change the situation.’ The Francis brothers believe their film prompted a meeting between the chief executive of Starbucks and the Ethiopian prime minister. In addition, the farmers who featured in the documentary saw their salaries trebled.
Visit www.blackgoldmovie.com for more information and to view the film.
